Post Build

Managed 1100 miles this year, caught short by the fuel panic at the end of September – absolute pain looking at beautiful skies but having nothing in tank. I didn’t feel like being strung up by attending a petrol station in the Caterham!! In future I’ll be keeping that tank full, lesson learnt!

So now time to get ready for winter. I don’t want to take the car on the roads over winter as they tend to be covered in salt/grit, it gets cold, darker and just isn’t what I wanted to use the Caterham for. Handling apparently a lot harder and short days with low light in sky is another drawback. As a result the car will stay in the garage.

There are lots of approaches people take to winter it seems. I did the following:

• Full tank of fuel (I use super unleaded)
• Clean it well inside and out
• Put a couple of large silicon moisture absorbing pads in the driver and passenger footwells. I have no idea if this will add any value, but had them lying around so thought it was worth doing to help prevent any moisture build up
• Inflated tyres to 26 PSI (Usually run at 22PSI) – will check these sporadically throughout winter
• Handbrake off and used chocks to secure the wheels (instead of bricks!)
• Connected battery trickle charger using the ring connectors and running wires underneath the car, so I can leave the bonnet on
• Put the roof and doors back on and cover with the cover bought from caterhamparts.co.uk

Every few weeks I’ll go and roll it forward or back a bit so it doesn’t sit on one particular area of the tyres. In particular I’ll keep an eye out to make sure the battery trickle charger is still running, and for any sign of rodents in which case I will lay down traps.

I considered jacking the car up to rest on axle stands, but that operation comes with some degree of risk (screwing up and dropping the car), which I felt outweighed any potential reward so opted to keep it on the ground.

I have decided it is easier to leave the car fully insured year round. However, I got my reminder in the post that the tax is due 1st Dec … 280GBP for the year or 24.50 per month as a direct debit. So I decided to do a SORN (Statutory Off Road Notice) which is actually incredibly easy to do on the gov website. Just filled in the 11 digits from my V5C form (you can also use the 16 digits on the V11 reminder letter you get sent). The car is now registered as off the road, so I can’t drive it on roads until I tax it again. I’ve written this on a piece of paper in capital letters next to my keys because I have memory of a sieve!

I will tax it again in March once the weather improves. When you tax it again, you can start driving that day. In future, my MOT will be due in December, you are apparently allowed to drive a SORN’d car to and from an MOT, so this won’t be an issue. It’s only saving 100 – 150 quid a year, but that’s better than nothing and adds up over years.

Few changes while I am waiting for the weather to improve.

LED lights – lots of people speak about how the Caterham lights are a bit underwhelming and I can see that. I got the clear lens pack as an option, and that gets supplied with some LED bulbs, but it still leaves a bit to be desired. I went upgraded rear clusters and front LED repeaters from Just Add Lightness and I can’t recommend them enough. Make sure you get the LED relay if you do this to prevent the lights flashing too fast. After I fitted the rear lights and they weren’t working I sent the company an email 6pm on Friday, I got a call back 5 minutes later from Doug the owner, who spent the next couple of days going back and forth with me on Whatsapp to help troubleshoot. Turns out it was my battery that was the issue, that’s another story, but the one thing that was clear was the level of customer service from JAL is outstanding, Doug just went above and beyond.

High level brake light – Also purchased two of these from Just Add Lightness. I am fitting one on each side of the roll cage. Idea behind high level lights is you are so low. I’ve had issues before in my Peugeot 207 where someone close behind me in their MPV couldn’t see I was stopped with hazards on, so it’s only going to get worse when your bum is about 3 inches off the floor. The RHS of the caterham has a splitter already wired for a high level brake light, so installing there is easy (and if you only get one, you can just wire it to the RHS). For the LHS, I ordered another sub loom from caterhamparts. You could make your own, but for 10 quid I figured easier to just order than source all the parts. You just swap out the existing sub-loom with this new one on the LHS and you get another wiring point.

For both the above instructions available on the Just Add Lightness website

Mobile Phone Holder – I thought about this but figured its good to have one in place in case I need a map, and realistically, for the safety camera warnings. Obviously not that I am speeding or advocating it … I just like to know where the safety cameras are. Can also use this to control music. I went with the Brodit solution, I got a 3D printed bracket from Ebay, this fits on the tonneau poppers on the scuttle. That is just a mount, you also need to purchase a custom clip from Brodit to put on that mount. I removed the scuttle trim for this (think it looks nicer without), unscrewed the two poppers on the scuttle and mounted the bracket under the poppers before screwing back up. Also got a USB cigarette lighter adapter in case I need to charge anything on the go.

Music – can be controversial, but I want the ability to blast out some music if the mood captures me… I decided to not fit permanently wired speakers. Modern bluetooth speakers are quite impressive and can be hooked up easily – especially when it is so easy to access music via your phone. I bought a UE Megaboom 3, which I have secured with zip ties to begin with. You can get multiple speakers and hook them up together, and it works just configured as a bluetooth output/headset on your phone. At the moment I just have one. Seems OK so far in the house, haven’t been out in car yet.

Tyre Care– Having had the wife’s car tyre going flat during lockdown, and also one of the tyres on the Caterham going flat in my garage, I decided to feed my Makita tool habit and purchase their 18V tyre inflator. Nice to have the ability to pump up at home. While this should measure pressure, I also use an analogue meter as backup – these are your four points of contact with the road afterall. I have the Draper Tyre Pressure Gauge for that.

As with lots of things on the Caterham you can argue it’s over the top, but it’s helped me out a couple of times and I top off all our cars with it monthly now. Note: This tyre inflator does not include a battery, so if you don’t have Makita batteries already, be careful because you’ll need to buy their battery type, at about 50 quid a pop. I’ve got maybe 10-15 different Makita power tools and 4 x 5.0Ah batteries, so marginal tool purchases with them are pretty cost effective. That’s what I tell myself at least.

I keep the Caterham tyres at 23 PSI as per the manual. I have Avon ZZS tyres

– 6J x 13″ (185/55R13 W) on front

– 8J x 13″ (215/55R13 W) on the rear

Yours may vary! When I got the Caterham back, the RHS rear tyre had a slow leak. I couldn’t find any punctures – took it to the local tyre shop and turned out it was the bead around the rim of the alloy that had a gap and a very slow leak. They re-sealed the tyre free of charge, which was kind of them.

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Once you have passed the IVA, you get given an IVA Certificate. The below process is specific to the UK.

To get the car registered you need to send this certificate and a bunch of documents in the post to the DVLA.

This process can take 4-6 weeks, but it only took a couple of weeks for me in December 2020. I included the following:

• Proof of address – I used a colour photocopy of a water bill (within last three months)
• Proof of name – I used a colour photocopy of driving licence
• IVA Certificate – you receive this at the IVA centre after a pass
• Certificate of newness – should have been included in your pack from Caterham
• Insurance certificate – chicken before egg, but you need to be insured before you register the car. I got cover with Footman James for what I consider a very reasonable price. You’ll need to speak to providers on the phone because you don’t have a registration plate/number yet – however they can insure you based on your chassis number and then you just give the insurer your registration number when you get assigned one by the DVLA. It’s not like you’re going to be driving it without a number plate! Obviously get a few different quotes… The quote I dealt on was less than half what I got quoted by one insurer, and about 30pc cheaper than a third quote!!
• Invoices for parts – this was included from Caterham. I had two invoices here – one from Titan Motorsport (axle) and one from Power Torque Engineering (engine)
• Invoice for car from Williams – because I didn’t buy this car direct from Caterham, I also included the original invoice from Williams, the dealer I used. If you buy from Caterham direct, they will include their invoice in their pack.
• V627/1 Built Up Vehicle Report – Government form partially completed by Caterham. Add your name, address, phone number and sign – leave the rest of the second page blank.
• V55/4 Application for first vehicle tax and registration of a new motor vehicle – Government form partially completed by Caterham. Complete section 59, 60, 61 and 65.
• Payment – you can verify amount needed section 4 of the V55/4 form. In my case it was registration fee of 55 GBP and Tax of 265 GBP, so a total of 320 GBP. I paid this via cheque, very 1990s in the UK!
• Self Addressed Envelope – I just put a second class stamp on this

After a few weeks you will receive a V5C log book from the DVLA back in the post. They will also give you a V948 form which tells you the registration number they have assigned you, eg AA20 AAA.

Number Plates

Now, with the number plate you have two options – keep the one assigned by DVLA, or go for a personalised one.

I was fairly relaxed about this, but I got encouraged to get a personalised plate by a few people and I could see the point. It’s a bit like a finishing touch on the car. I did a compromise where I personalised a plate, but not with my initials.

You can apparently get the personalised plate fitted immediately, so if that suits you more, just be aware of that. However, I wanted to fit the plate afterwards, so I let DVLA assign a plate for me. I wanted a randomly assigned licence plate number because if I ever sell (or realistically trade up to another Caterham) then it’s easy to keep the personalised plate and sell the car with the original random licence plate put back on.

I bought my personalised plate in August 2020 from DVLA Personalised Registrations, months before I finished the car. 250 quid. There are many other brokers available. You get sent a paper certificate for the personalised plate (V750) in the post that is proof you have the right to use that number plate. You then have ten years to ‘assign it’ to a car.

To assign a number plate, just fill in the online form on gov.uk. Very easy. This then pairs it up in all the various government systems. Once that is done, you can phone your insurance company and give them your registration number so they can add that to your policy documents.

Then you need to get some licence plates made to put on the car. Beware here, technically speaking you’re supposed to follow legal guidelines and have the licence plate made by someone who is registered to do so. I went with UK Reg Plates who were fully registered to make licence plates and this cost about 25 quid. I had to scan and upload a copy of my driving licence, and also the V750 proving I had the right to use the personalised registration. I also got my DVLA assigned registration number plate made up in a seperate order (attaching the V948 the DVLA give when they assign your reg). Just beware that you get 6 weeks to use the V948.

Now I have my personalised plate fitted to the car, and I’ve got the original plates in a cupboard.

To fit the plate to the car I used 3M Dual Lock. Take the time to measure it up center the plates and get it right!